Page 60 - ST November 2013

education I

BY RYAN ROSE

Phases

to Progress

A

fter assessing over a thousand au- • Phase 1 would be a suggestion by changing
ditions and teaching hundreds of your body language and the look on your face,

Parelli students, I’ve discovered a conveying an intention for the horse to move.

very common pain point for students • Phase 2 would be where you start moving your
trying to move into the next level. Carrot Stick in a manner to support your sug-

This pain point lies within under- gestion but without touching the horse.

standing the diferent stages of development and • Phase 3 would be where you start to lightly
using “phases”. In this article, I’m going to explain touch your horse with the stick on the appro-

what the diferent stages of development are and priate spot on their body.

how to use your phases to increase your horse’s level • Phase 4 would be where you touch the horse
of mental and physical engagement, or “responsibil- irmly with the stick and continue until the

ity,” during each game and maneuver. Plus, I’ll try desired response (such as moving their

to explain diferent strategies for using your phases hindquarters, forequarters, backing, etc.) is
to make more of a game out of it and increase your achieved. In this stage, you start to develop

lightness while at the same time increasing your positive patterns by following the motto

horse’s responsiveness.
“practice doesn’t make perfect - only perfect
The diferent stages of development are teaching, practice makes perfect.” As you develop

controlling, reinforcing, and reining. The your horse, you move in and out of this stage

examples that I’ll be using in this article will mostly regularly as you progress and teach them
be related to the Driving Game, as this is the easiest new things.

game to diferentiate what the diferent phases will The second stage is the controlling stage. This

look like during the various stages.
is where you would go straight to Phase 4 in order
In the teaching stage, most people have a pretty to “control” the horse from getting himself (or you)

good understanding of phases and how to use them. in trouble. For instance, if the horse were to try to
When you’re teaching your horse something new, run you over on the ground, you would go straight

you would be in the teaching stage. This would mean to Phase 4 to protect your space. Similarly, if you

that you would be using Phases 1 through 4 in a se- were riding and he started to buck under saddle,
quential manner to make it very clear what you are you would go straight to Phase 4 with your one rein

asking for and allowing your horse time to think. The stop and keep yourself safe. This is what we call “got

phases that you’re using would look like this:
to” situations. The idea would be to have taught the

58 | Savvy Times November 2013